Fay Compton

Image of Fay Compton is held at the Swiss silent film website:  http://www.cyranos.ch/spcomf-e.htm accessed 30 November 2010

(b.1894-d.1978)

The actress Fay Compton, real name Virginia Lilian Emmeline MackenzieCompton, was born in London. Her parents were both theatre actors.  She made her silent film debut in 1914 in She Stoops to Conquer, followed by One Summer’s Day (1917) and The Labour Leader (1917).   In the 1920’s and took part in A Woman of No Importance (1921), Diana of the Crossways (1922), The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots (1923) with John Stuart and Irene Rooke, Claude Duval (1924), The Happy Ending (1925), Robinson Crusoe (1927) and Fashions in Love (1929).

Compton had a trained voice because of her stage experience, so she made the successful transition to talking pictures and appeared in: Cape Forlorn (1931), Waltzes from Vienna (1933), Autumn Crocus (1934) and The Mill on the Floss (1937).  She happily returned to acting on the stage but appeared in the occasional film right up until the early 1970s: Odd Man Out (1947), Blackmailed (1950), Laughter in Paradise (1951), Othello (1952), Town on Trial (1957), The Haunting (1963), The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), and Cold Comfort Farm (1971).

Films with Charles Ashton

Frances, Duchess of Brentleigh in Claude Duval (1924)

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